#dftba records

[evapillar]

I genuinely can’t tell if SciShow Tangents did a Hanukkah episode on purpose or if this was a complete coincidence

[loremori]

Martin Freeman (235/366)

📺|Sherlock (2010–2017) Writer & Creator Mark Gatiss Steven Moffat

Modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters. Risa Rodil art: Ty Mattson + Olly Moss + Saul Bass inspired.

[adz]

i had this dream last night, totally out of nowhere. that Tom Milsom released new music. i mean, i guess he could’ve, i wouldn’t know, i’m not keeping tabs. Tom Milsom? oh he was like one of the original tumblr seapunks, infamously did a cover of 212 where he said the word, got cancelled for sex crimes. it was around the same time as the Nerimon thing. they were close friends actually. Nerimon? yeah they were both british youtubers, both got cancelled for sex crimes in similar circumstances. they were in the same circle as this trans girl who goes by Charlotte now, she’s cool though. this was pre-transition. ah you’re not familiar? her and Nerimon were in this trock band called Chameleon Circuit together. oh trock? it stands for time rock, uh, it’s rock music about the show Doctor Who. you know, cause he’s the time lord. a lot of trock artists were on DFTBA Records together. you know DFTBA right? it stands for “don’t forget to be awesome,” it was started by the Vlogbrothers. ahh so, the Vlogbrothers kinda originally got famous for this long-running vlog series where they’d trade off each week addressing their video to the other brother, but then they each independently got famous. one did a lot of science education stuff, and the other wrote some really popular YA novels, but then had the whole “cock is one of my favorite tastes” thing happen,

[ahappydnp]

cw for sexual assault /

hello! i'm not the anon in question, but based on their wording, it sounds like they're talking about the alex day / tom milsom / youtuber sexual assault situation.

alex day was under DFTBA records iirc and people see john and hank as the "youtube dads" so to speak, so when these allegations came forward and sprung up conversations about consent and such, people kept hounding them asking for their opinions and takes on everything

in the aftermath, hundreds of people came forward about several youtubers, which was good! but this included one or two false allegations about tyler oakley and dan and phil. i vividly remember hank green publicly speaking out and said that the allegations against tyler oakley & dan and phil were completely false.

the person who made the allegations about dan and phil clarified that they were just attention seeking, but i can't remember if this was before or after hank green publicly sided with them

(fyi, i personally don't think this is definitive proof that phil was forced to come out to hank green..........? 🙃)

oh wow i totally missed that hank was involved in that. thanks for explaining! yeah i don’t think that would require phil outing himself?

[honor-among-thieves]

Let's not forget this happened. I'm going to link the Wiki page because all record of this incident has basically been scrubbed from the Internet, and I'm going to trigger warn right here for sexual abuse of minors

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFTBA_Records

It's actually wild to me that the cock monologue and people accusing John Green of being creepy are what was remembered, because this didn't happen in a bubble, and people were fully aware this scandal was going on at the exact same time.

Like yeah, they weren't the perpetrators but a lot of people highly suspect there was no way they couldn't have known what was going on. They were the bosses of these people. ALL ARTISTS. ALL OF THEM.

Your mileage may vary on where you want to hold the Green brother's accountable for this stuff, but let's not forget there were actual victims, and let's not let this story get buried under a narrative that it was only John and Hank.

The Green brothers are great, fun creators and never deserved the hate they got on tumblr. Yes John got the most of it but Hank was called cringe and all they ever really did was exist on the internet earnestly and not be super ironic or sarcastic and just want to create a space for nerds that is completely different to the persecuted nerd men that dominate on spaces like twitter and Reddit. Nerdfighteria was a movement populated by nerdy teen women (and guys as well!) and it just wanted to be welcoming.

[lemonyandbeatrice]

john green deleting his Tumblr means you can't find the post where he said it was okay for laci green to say the t-slur by typing out the t-slur and sending his fans at a trans person who said "hey maybe don't say the t-slur"

you also can't find where he said that mike lombardo, post being arrested by the FBI, was not actually associated with nerdfighteria even though he was on the dftba record label

you also can't find the post where he got mad at a teenage girl for being uncomfortable with how he engaged with his fan base of teenage girls

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Why shouldn’t the green brothers be in charge of teens

At the end of the 00s/start of the 2010s, the Green Brothers set up a record label called Don't Forget to Be Awesome, also known as DFTBA. At the time they also ran events such as VidCon.

In 2012, it came out that a number of the "content creators" involved with one or other event (or both) had been involved in sexual abuse/inappropriate relationships with minors or both. I have a long post about this which I'll try to find and reblog, because interestingly, it seems like since making that post, some of the information has been removed from Wiki and other sources.

One of the most serious of these was Mike Lombardo, who was exchanging sexual pictures with underage fans, and ultimately spent 5 years in prison. Mike didn't just release music via DFTBA, he was friends, or at least friendly with the Green Brothers, especially Hank. A lot of the evidence for this has been erased from the internet, but some of it still exists- there's some stuff on this redit thread if you are willing to scroll through all the innocent until proven guilty stuff: https://www.reddit.com/r/nerdfighters/comments/puuf8/mike_lombardo_under_fbi_investigation_for_child/

Another is Tom Milson, who had a relationship with a teenager which began when she was 15, and he was 21. When the relationship ended, the girl stated that he was emotionally abusive and sexually manipulative. Again, Tom Milson wasn't just signed to the label, he was close to the vlog brothers, and Hank actually met the teen in question (see this link: https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/tom-milsom-underage-sex-scandal/). He says he wasn't aware they were in a relationship, but he was quite happy for a teenage girl to be hanging out "backstage" with adult men at an event he organised because she was "cool".

There are also other people associated with the label such as Alex Day, Ed Blant etc who were in abusive relationships with adult female fans at the time when some of this came out.

These aren't the only incidents, as I say I'll try and find the post I wrote about this a while back- but the point is that the Green brothers created a platform which allowed men to abuse (mostly younger, and in some cases underage) women and girls. They also ran events like VidCon where some of this abuse took place, it's very clear they had no real concept of duty of care, or any desire to protect young female fans at these events.

Now, people will argue/debate the whole thing- and I'm not saying the Green brothers 100% knew what was going on (although I sort of think they must have been turning a deliberate blind eye to these things) but as someone who teaches this age group in the UK, part of my duty is to keep them safe and keep an eye out for e.g. relationships that may be inappropriate or abusive so we can help and support the people involved.

I think, through their past actions, at best the Green brothers have shown themselves to be dangerously oblivious, and I also think it's very clear they HATE this being brought up, and then minimise it (about the time Paper Towns, or whatever it is came out a lot of this 100% disappeared from the internet too).

At the time, they paid lip service to teaching people about consent, but they are the last people who should be teaching anyone about anything, because as far as I'm aware they have NEVER accepted their own culpability about these things, and that they created an environment where this abuse was possible.

So yeah, I don't think they'd be very suited to being high school teachers, no matter how "cool" they might seem.

[road2nf]

to be myself, embrace my quirks and above all realize my dream: to live in 10 different countries

The Nerdfighter community has helped me realize that I’m not alone. At school, I was a geek, nerd, freak, etc. Sometimes I felt really self-conscious, but I usually ignored it.

Then I read Paper Towns. There were some links in the back of the book, so I started watching the Vlogbrothers. That, in turn, led me to the online community.

I’ve made a lot of friends that are really rad. After a while, I also began watching Crash Course. They’ve helped me study for multiple tests. Also, I felt a lot more inspired to do things important to me. Music is one of the most important things in my life, but I didn’t know what to write about. Some of the artists on DFTBA Records reminded me that you should write for yourself. If Doctor Who is the only thing I can relate to, it’s 100% okay to write a song about it, and maybe someone else will like it too. I just want to thank them both for starting this and becoming so relevant to my life.

- Marissa (Thehillsarealivewithfangirls.tumblr)

___________________________________________________________________

Nerdfighteria, and of course the Vlogbrothers, has given me confidence to be myself, embrace my quirks and above all realize my dream: to live in 10 different countries.

I’m on number 7 and I couldn’t have done it without this awesome community

- spearmintsorbet

[notaplaceofhonour]

Resisting the urge to “Why Is No One Talking About This” this, but outside of replies to my own posts [Exhibit A, Exhibit B] about it, I have seen maybe one or two people even mention the radicalization of DropOut, and seen zero people mention the fact that the platform is a hub for multiple “Media Empires”, from the Green Brothers, to The McElroys, to Critical Role.

I often feel, when I talk about anything to do with Antizionism, like I did in 2019-2020 when I was saying “hey this QAnon stuff is pretty concerning”, and most of the people I mentioned it to were like “uh, yeah, okay… sure…” until January 6th, 2021.

And I’m aware this specific case of DropOut is probably not what most people, even those who are worried about I/P being used to radicalize people, are immediately concerned about. After all, a bunch of improv nerds playing tabletop games & panel game shows (however bigoted or misguided) are hardly Hamas fighters. DropOut is just one relatively small link in the chainmail, so to speak.

But damn if it isn’t a significant link if it can connect maybe 80% of the media I (and many of my friends) cared most about in the last half decade within 2 degrees of separation.

I’m obviously not afraid of Brennan Lee Mulligan walking into a synagogue with a bomb strapped to his chest or leading a brutal militia in some kind of wannabe Bolshevik Revolution. What I am worried about is him (and Sam Reich, and Ally, and others in the cast, and associated guests from Hank Green and Matt Mercer) putting a fun, friendly face to the pipeline that pushes people in the orbit of people who want to convince them that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be so bad if some other people did. I’m concerned about DropOut pushing JVP/SJP-style propaganda (both in employees’ social media & in campaigns), pushing people towards JVP & associated organizations, which themselves push people towards terror groups like the PFLP.

I’m concerned about The McElroys fundraising for PCRF, an organization with concerning ties, run by openly antisemitic people, that pushes antisemitic narratives. I’m concerned about the Green Brothers fundraising for UNRWA, which Hamas is heavily embedded in, and whose employees participated in the October 7th attacks. I’m concerned about the broader pattern of radicalization that this represents.

I’m concerned about queer nerdy neurodivergent people like me who grew up on Vlogbrothers or John Green novels or DFTBA records, who go to VidCon, who watch Polygon & Game Changers & SciShow & Brian David Gilbert & GeoTheBio & Worthikids & ContraPoints & Tom Cardy & follow fandom artists & cosplayers & listen to D20 & The Adventure Zone & MBMBAM & Sawbones & Delete This! & Chappell Roan & You’re Wrong About (or G-d forbid QAA & Behind the Bastards) & Conspirituality & Knowledge Fight & whoever else and are now surrounded by a media ecosystem in which many of its members are slowly (or perhaps in some cases not so slowly) tilting its floor into a funnel towards extreme, violent organizations.

I’m concerned about the people who aren’t connected to or knowledgeable enough about I/P to recognize that’s what’s happened. I’m concerned about the people who are and now find themselves losing comfort media, losing safety & feeling seen in their fandoms, losing community.

Idk if people know. Idk if they want to. Idk if anyone outside of like a handful of (let’s be real, mostly only Jewish) former DropOut fans are ever going to care.

The fact that a significant amount of influential & prolific people in the internet media landscape—several of whom have been so influential & prolific that their ventures have been described in media profiles as media “Empires”—are at most 2 degrees of separation from individuals actively promoting the manifesto of a terrorist organization involved in the October 7th massacre is truly, mind-bogglingly concerning.

[honor-among-thieves]

Bringing up the DFTBA records scandal and talking about it with a friend just has me want to throw out that I don't think Hank and John should be like... forever held accountable for it (or at least, it isn't up to me personally if they are). I also don't really have any strong feelings about either of them, negative or otherwise. I was active in some parts of Nerdfighteria around that time and dropped off because I felt they were both too politically center for my tastes as I started to come into adulthood.

My interest is solely making sure we don't completely forget that this happened, because people are unaware of it and it's important in the story of everything that happened after.

[natelm2nd]

I posted 1,164 times in 2022

That's 1,151 more posts than 2021!

20 posts created (2%)

1,144 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@whythursdaynext

@autisticassassinbird

@all-made-of-stardust

@to-to-karamba

@bioswear

I tagged 282 of my posts in 2022

#critical role - 133 posts

#cr spoilers - 53 posts

#critical role spoilers - 27 posts

#skyrim - 16 posts

#cr3 - 12 posts

#bells hells - 12 posts

#the elder scrolls - 11 posts

#laura bailey - 10 posts

#exu: calamity - 10 posts

#sam riegel - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 71 characters

#a chaotic version of me wants to tag this as ‟encanto‟ and ‟bruno mars‟

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

My brain is silly

Started playing Pillars of Eternity II for the first time. I have an ear infection currently so was playing with sound off. I'm currently imagining the protagonist as Liam O'Brien but with those fake elf ears. There was a squints eyes dramatically option and I was like "yeah, that's liam" The companion may or may not be voiced by Matt Mercer or Talisen Jaffe...

Also this is the second zenimax media affiliated title I've played where the protagonist comes back from The Dead. The other was Elder Scrolls Online.

4 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#4

Try guys about to become the Tri Guys

Welp. Ned Fulmer cheated on his wife with an employee and this reminded me of Nerdfighteria/DFTBA Records having their Me Too moment a DECADE ago.

6 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

#3

I appreciate TV Tropes editors for making a page for the new Tumblr goof. Helps those of us who may forget or not understand its a movie that doesn't exist.

12 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#2

Unsure if this is Tina or Ashly dming...

13 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Currently watching a bunch of nerds born between 1976 and 1991 pretend to be teen hackers in 1995. Also there may have been a cereal killer and a Dr. Crusher involved.

22 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[rosiethorns88]

With the Mike Wazowski epidemic plaguing Carry On & Wayward Son covers, the clear solution here is to simply implement an additional decoy dust jacket!

✨

Super fun opportunity for an Olga Grlic color study - so inspirational!

[lunalovegood2]

It's the most wonderful time of the year! 🍕 (x)

[isjohngreenmybestfriendyet]

Day 2464:

Johh Green is not my best friend yet. 

[kiwibee]

I’m in love with these three goofballs

[road2nf]

I felt a lot more inspired to do things important to me

The Nerdfighter community has helped me realize that I’m not alone. At school, I was a geek, nerd, freak, etc. Sometimes I felt really self conscious, but I usually ignored it.

Then I read Paper Towns. There were some links in the back of the book, so I started watching the Vlogbrothers. That, in turn, led me to the online community.

I’ve made a lot of friends that are really rad. After a while, I also began watching Crash Course. They’ve helped me study for multiple tests. Also, I felt a lot more inspired to do things important to me. Music is one of the most important things in my life, but I didn’t know what to write about. Some of the artists on DFTBA Records reminded me that you should write for yourself. If Doctor Who is the only thing I can relate to, it’s 100% okay to write a song about it, and maybe someone else will like it too. I just want to thank them both for starting this and becoming so relevant to my life.

Marissa (Thehillsarealivewithfangirls.tumblr)